CANUCKSARMY GDT 20 – CANUCKS VS. BLUES

It’s been a season of ups and downs so far for the Vancouver Canucks. Tonight they’ll look to rebound from an ugly loss on Thursday against the Golden Knights when they face the visiting St. Louis Blues on Hockey Night in Canada. The Canucks and Blues used to have a decent rivalry but now resort to meeting a few times a season.

The Blues are coming off a convincing win against the Oilers on Thursday, so it’s up to the Canucks to break serve and remind the Blues why they used to hate coming to Vancouver.

It’s the ninth-place Canucks and the first place Blues at Rogers Arena.

Let’s do this!

WATCH / LISTEN / FACE-OFF

TV: CBC (HNIC)

RADIO: SN650

PUCK DROP: 7:00 PM

LINE COMBINATIONS

Chris Tanev may slot back into the lineup tonight (please, please be true) while Troy Stecher has been skating and could return to the lineup soon. Jake Virtanen was taking line rushes with the Sedins after sitting for three games in the press box. Alex Burmistrov and Brendan Gaunce were the extras and would be the safe bet to be healthy scratched.

Chris Tanev may indeed play tonight and his presence is needed. If Tanev plays then Alex Biega sits and secures the back end just enough to let the forwards take charge a bit more. This team can’t afford injuries on defense… or anywhere really. Troy Stecher is close and could actually give the Canucks the proper boost they need to start winning some games consistently again.

The Canucks have the lowest Corsi Against events this season by one! It doesn’t really feel like it some nights but they’re keeping that puck away from their own end. They’re also the leaders in CA/60. If they can figure out a way to stop allowing the first goal on the first few shots they really could make something of this thing.

Brayden Schenn (the better Schenn) is having himself a November to remember. Schenn has four goals and ten points in his last five games and the Canucks might just be a team he continues this trend. However, the Canucks are streak busters so seeing Schenn go pointless isn’t out of the question.

There are two Blues brothers that are tearing up the NHL right now, the aforementioned Schenn and Jaden Schwartz. Both of these guys have 25 points thus far whereas the Canucks have four players on their team that are above the 10 point mark. Two different teams for sure, but the Lightning of the West is in town so Travis Green will be deploying a healthy amount of Derek Dorsett and Brandon Sutter.

The shootout. Vancouver has been in the shootout only once this season and that was a loss against the Senators. It’s great the Canucks haven’t needed to get that far to try and earn a point but considering they aren’t allowing a ton of total shots via 5v5 and aren’t producing very many, it’s a wonder they haven’t needed it more. Look out, it may be near.

Jason Botchford and Jeff Paterson touched on this during the Patcast. Are we under-hyping Brock Boeser?

I think we ARE.

MY 94 CENTS

Could it get much worse? The Canucks played down to their opponent last game and were embarrassed. Tonight, in typical fashion, they’ll most likely play up to their competition and have a game for the ages. Just one of those things that always seem to happen. Jake Virtanen is back in and this is a team that he should be able to shine against. I wouldn’t be surprised if he had a two-goal game. Win or lose, nothing has really surprised me this season.

The Canucks have been as bad as we’ve expected at times but surprisingly great when we haven’t expected anything. Canucks win but I don’t know how.

OVER / UNDER

Jake Virtanen 2nd Star (+/- 1) This is a game Jake needs to come back to life, go with the under. He still makes the list.

Thomas Vanek Breakaway clapper (+/- 0) Take the over… in overtime.

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To put it another way, an overtime loss is not a tie, and should not be interpreted as one. By your system of counting, the league as a whole would have far more wins than losses, a reductio ad absurdum.

Isn’t that the problem with the Bettman points? A regular win, tie or loss would be 2, 1, and 0 points, but the NHL is going, 2 and 1 for ties because they have to be won. So instead of giving out 2 points for any scenario (2 for a win, 1 each for a tie) they are giving out potentially 3 points which kind of means there are more ‘wins’ then there would be under the old system. Which seems a bit absurd.

The three point system is definitely the most sensible solution, but the NHL doesn’t want this because they want to create artificial parity – the current system keeps the standings closer than it would be if it were changed to a 3-2-1 system or to not rewarding a point for OT losses, so teams won’t be eliminated from the playoffs until the very end of the season (unless they’re truly awful) and fans will stay engaged.

I thought the idea behind signing Nilsson was to run a tandem, and Nilsson’s been significantly better than Markstrom this season… so why do they keep trotting out Markstrom? Markstrom’s been passable, but Nilsson’s been legitimately elite. Give Nilsson a couple games in a row and see if he can sustain his performance. He’s earned it. Markstrom’s earned a few games off.